


bloom so brilliantly

by mardia



Category: Hidden Legacy Series - Ilona Andrews
Genre: Arranged Marriage, F/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-18
Updated: 2017-12-18
Packaged: 2019-02-16 09:53:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13051623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mardia/pseuds/mardia
Summary: “We’ve received a request from the Scroll for your basic DNA profile. From House Sagredo.”For a second, the words don’t make sense. Then they sink in, and Catalina feels the heat rushing to her cheeks, even as her hands go cold.





	bloom so brilliantly

**Author's Note:**

  * For [katayla](https://archiveofourown.org/users/katayla/gifts).



> Happy Yuletide, katayla! I saw this prompt and immediately wanted to do something with it, as it was exactly what I wanted to read after the 3rd book was released.

"Catalina, I need to talk to you."

Nevada's face looks calm when she says this, but the serious note in her voice grabs Catalina's attention, even before she looks at her sister and sees the tension in her shoulders, in how she's carrying herself. 

Arabella notices it too, as she sits up from where she's been lounging on the couch. "What's going on?"

"Nothing," Nevada says. 

"Are we at war again?" Arabella asks, perking up. For the last couple months, she's been complaining how _boring_ everything is now that they're all stable and a House; Catalina's mostly sure she's just doing it to get a rise out of everyone, but it's still irritating. 

Nevada looks harassed. "No, Arabella, we're not at war. I just need to speak to Catalina for a moment. Privately." When Arabella looks like she's about to open her mouth again, Nevada gives her the look that shuts her up in a hurry. 

Catalina gets up from the couch, saying to Arabella, "Pause it for me, will you?"

"Hurry up, I want to see what happens to Jake and Amy next," Arabella says, but pauses the episode of _Brooklyn Nine-Nine_ that they're watching on Hulu, freezing the screen on Andy Samberg's face. 

Catalina wipes her hands on her jeans as she walks with Nevada to her office, and as soon as they’re out of earshot, she asks worriedly, “Is everything okay?”

“Everything’s fine, I promise,” Nevada says, gesturing for Catalina to come inside. Despite her sister’s reassurance, Catalina perches at the edge of the chair facing Nevada’s desk, waiting nervously. 

Nevada doesn’t drag it out. “We’ve received a request from the Scroll for your basic DNA profile. From House Sagredo.”

For a second, the words don’t make sense. Then they sink in, and Catalina feels the heat rushing to her cheeks, even as her hands go cold. “I--why?”

“I’ve talked to Rogan and to Cornelius to get their perspective. Both of them agree that this is most likely the first step to approaching us for a potential alliance.” Nevada’s calm mask slips for a minute, and she grimaces. “Which, in this case, likely means marriage. To Alessandro Sagredo.”

“Marriage,” Catalina repeats, feeling light-headed. She stares down at her hands, at the blue nail polish that’s just starting to chip--Matilda had asked to paint her nails two nights ago, and Catalina had agreed. “Did you refuse?”

Nevada pauses before responding, and Catalina looks up, startled not to hear Nevada confirm that they’d immediately refused the request. “I wanted to.” Nevada’s mouth curves up ruefully as she adds, “And Mom really wanted me to. But Rogan--and Cornelius--both made the argument that since you’re eighteen, we should talk to you first before we made any decisions.”

Catalina feels like she ought to be flattered that Nevada’s treating her like an adult, including her in such a big decision. Instead all she feels is panic. “I don’t…” She realizes that she’s wringing her hands and makes herself stop with an effort. “What am I supposed to say right now?”

“Anything you want to,” Nevada immediately tells her. “Catalina, this isn’t meant to pressure you into anything, I promise. You can say no. Hell, I want you to say no. You don’t need to do anything you don’t want to do.”

Catalina exhales. “I thought we needed more alliances,” she says softly. “Isn’t that the point of having these three years to establish ourselves as a strong House?”

Nevada is starting to look alarmed now, and she says quickly, “Yes, but that doesn’t mean you need to marry a stranger to make that happen.”

Catalina doesn’t say anything, but in the back of her head, she’s wondering if it does mean exactly that.

*

That night, Catalina does something she hasn’t let herself do in months, and she opens up Alessandro Sagredo’s Instagram. 

He looks just as gorgeous as he always does, photos of him staring into the camera while the sun shines behind him, hair tousled and his half-smile showing a dimple in his cheek. Catalina’s looked up his net worth before: the Sagredo family is worth at least 2.5 billion. He has over 70 million followers on Instagram, up a couple million from when he’d followed her and she’d immediately deleted her account.

This guy, this unbelievably gorgeous, filthy rich guy, is supposed to want to marry Catalina. He’s got 70 million followers on Instagram, and Catalina’s planning on going to school to become an accountant. This is ridiculous. 

“No fucking way,” Catalina mutters to herself, but she keeps going through his photos anyway. 

*

By morning, of course, her entire family knows about the would-be marriage proposal. And because it’s Catalina’s family, literally everyone has an opinion. 

“You should totally do it,” Arabella says, her mouth full of pancakes. “And then you should take me for a drive in that Maserati.”

“Nobody is taking a ride in a Maserati,” their mother declares firmly. “And Catalina’s not marrying anyone.”

The flat refusal to even consider it should be a relief. Emphasis on ‘should’. 

Rogan’s joined them for breakfast--Nevada’s taken to bringing him to family meals in an attempt to “normalize” him to everyone--and Catalina can feel him watching all of them, considering. 

“But it makes total sense, though,” Arabella argues. “If Nevada can marry Rogan, why can’t Catalina marry Alessandro?”

“That’s different,” Catalina growls. 

“Uh, how?” Arabella asks.

“Because Nevada’s just as much of a weirdo as Rogan,” Catalina shoots back without thinking, and then blushes, looking over at Nevada and Rogan. “Um…”

Nevada’s clapped a hand over her face, but Rogan looks amused, thankfully. “I’ll take that as a compliment,” he says, looking over at Nevada, and Nevada lifts her hand from her face to smile at him. While they’re watching each other all sappy-eyed, Catalina cuts up her pancakes with more force than is actually needed, her knife scraping against the plate and making Bern wince. 

“This is absolutely ridiculous,” Catalina’s mother declares, glaring at everyone, even Leon and Bern, who have yet to say anything, although with Leon, that’s not going to last long. “Catalina’s eighteen, we’re not selling her off to the highest bidder to get married.”

Even Arabella’s not going to argue with that, and everyone falls silent at the table. Until Rogan decides to speak up. 

“You should think it through,” Rogan says in his low rumble, and everyone looks at him. “The Sagredo family are established and powerful. It would be a good alliance for any newly emerging House.”

Grandma lets out a low whistle. “Wrong move, buddy.”

Mom swells with anger in her seat. “I am not,” she says with awful precision, “selling my child to the wolves so we can add an extra wing to the house.”

“That’s not what I was saying,” Rogan starts, with an undertone of _stop being so dramatic_ , and Leon and Arabella start chiming in, and abruptly Catalina can’t take it, not for another second. 

“If it really wasn’t an option, you would have said no when the Sagredo family requested my profile,” Catalina says, cutting through the conversation. 

Everyone falls silent, and Catalina wishes that the stricken look on Nevada’s face wasn’t there, but she can’t take the words back. She doesn’t _want_ to take the words back. 

“We can say no to them now,” her mother insists. “We should’ve said no from the beginning--”

“We’re an emerging House and we need alliances,” Catalina says, and sees Rogan nodding out of the corner of her eye. Her stomach clenches, but she continues. “I’m not saying that I want to say yes--it’s just stupid to pretend like we shouldn’t consider it.” She stabs her fork into the center of her pancakes and says next, “And I’d like a little space to think it over before people start yelling at me about Maseratis or that I’m being sold to the wolves.”

Everyone is quiet at that, and Catalina stares at her plate, face burning. “Can I be excused,” she mumbles finally, and when her mother says yes, she heads upstairs to her room without looking back.

*

Fifteen minutes later, there’s a careful knock on Catalina’s bedroom door. It’s too soft to be Arabella, and Catalina calls out, “I don’t want to talk, Nevada.”

A small pause, and then a male voice says, “It’s not Nevada.”

Catalina’s eyes grow huge, and she scrambles off her bed, because when Mad Rogan shows up at your door you don’t leave him waiting. 

It’s incredibly strange having Mad Rogan, the Scourge of Mexico, sitting down at her computer desk where her laptop is, carefully setting her backpack to one side so he doesn’t knock it over. He looks incredibly out of place, and Catalina perches on the corner of her bed, waiting for whatever he’s about to say next. 

“I think,” Rogan says, and his voice is shockingly hesitant for him. Catalina doesn’t know him well--what she knows of him that isn’t based on his reputation mostly centers on how he’s really good at driving her sister nuts--but Nevada seems to like it, anyway. “I think you might have some...misconceptions about how arranged marriages work for Primes.”

Catalina looks down at her hands. “You don’t need to do this,” she says quietly. “I already know you think it’s a good idea for me to marry him, you don’t need to try and sell me on it.” Not to mention her mom is going to go ballistic if she finds out what Rogan’s trying to do. 

Rogan shifts his weight. “I do think it’s a good idea. But not only for the reasons you think I do.”

Catalina’s forehead wrinkles, and Rogan explains, “When two Houses arrange a marriage, literally everything is set out in writing. Finances, where you’ll live, where you’ll raise your children, even how many children you’re willing to try for. It can be seen as excessive, but a benefit of the system is that by the time you’re finally at that altar, you know exactly what you’re in for. You know who you’re marrying.”

“Rynda Sherwood didn’t,” Catalina points out. 

Rogan lifts an eyebrow. “Rynda was badly served by her mother,” he says. “We’d protect you better than that.” He waits a beat, and then adds. “And I think Sagredo would be a good match for you.”

“Because he can resist my magic?” Catalina asks, a little sourly. 

“Because he wouldn’t be afraid of you,” Rogan says. “Trust me, that matters.”

And well...he would know. And despite herself, Catalina lets herself think back to that moment at the Trials, that perfect moment when Alessandro looked at her and she could _feel_ him slipping free of her magic, how her knees had nearly buckled from relief when he’d turned and walked away. 

Catalina doesn’t speak at first, but then she asks, curious, “How’d you convince my mom and Nevada to let you talk to me?”

A corner of Rogan’s mouth tilts up. “I didn’t ask for permission,” he says. 

“Wow,” Catalina says, solemn. “You’re really looking to have my mom kick your ass, huh?”

Rogan laughs. “I’m not worried,” he says. “Nevada can protect me.”

*

Three days later, Catalina tells Nevada and her mother that she wants to release her DNA profile to the Sagredos, and to receive Alessandro’s in return. 

A month after that, she’s waiting in one of Rogan’s armored cars at a private airfield just outside Houston, watching as Alessandro’s plane touches down on the runway. Nevada and her mother had both offered to come with her, but Catalina had said no, she wanted to do this herself. Well, herself and the half a dozen bodyguards Rogan would insist on sending with her. 

She’s been texting with Arabella as a way to distract from her nerves, and looks down at the last text Arabella sent. 

_don’t worry, if he’s a jerk I can just squash him :)))))))_

Catalina breathes out. It’s fine, it’s just a visit, it’s going to be fine. She has her sisters, and Cornelius, and Rogan to back her up. And even if she didn’t, Catalina has herself, and that has to be enough. 

She looks out the tinted window again and watches as Alessandro comes down the airstairs of the plane, a bag slung over his shoulder, the wind ruffling his dark hair. 

In what feels like no time at all, Alessandro and his entourage have reached the cars, and then the door is open and Alessandro is sliding in, settling in next to her in the SUV. 

From this close, Catalina can smell the woodsy scent of his cologne. She can see the tiny mole right underneath his ear. And then he looks at her, and he smiles, looking honestly happy to see her, and despite everything that Rogan and Nevada have said, Catalina has no idea _why_.

“Catalina,” Alessandro says, grinning. “It’s good to see you again.”

Catalina swallows, and croaks out a faint, “Hello.”

Alessandro’s grin only gets even wider, and Catalina takes in a deep breath--ignoring that cologne--and gathers up her courage, and asks the only question that matters. 

“Why do you want to do this?” she asks. 

Alessandro’s expression grows wary. “Pardon?”

Catalina shakes her head a little. “Don’t worry, I’m not...I’m not trying to put the brakes on anything. I just...before we get started on this for real, I just want to know why.”

It would have made more strategic sense to wait to ask the question until Nevada’s with them, but Catalina can’t keep hiding behind her older sister forever. There will be time for Nevada to interrogate Alessandro eventually, but right now in this moment, Catalina needs to have at least an idea of...of who she’s dealing with, and what he wants. 

Alessandro doesn’t answer, not right away. Instead he looks at her, eyes searching her face like he’s trying to figure out what her goal is. And then he shakes his head, and laughs a little to himself. 

“You know,” he says, as Troy starts to peel out of the parking lot, “my entire life, I’ve been training against the day I’d meet someone who was stronger than me. Against the faceless monster powerful enough to beat me, a Sagredo. Who would be the one person able to climb inside my mind and tear my psyche to shreds?”

Catalina feels a shiver go down her spine, but Alessandro’s gaze is honest and steady.

“And I get on a plane to Houston, and I meet you,” Alessandro continues, laughing a little, “and in just under a couple of minutes, you broke me completely.”

Catalina stares at him, baffled. “And that’s...a good thing?”

Alessandro grins at her. “The most terrifying thing I’ll ever face as an antistasi, and it’s you. A girl who was sorry for making me take one step over a line. A girl who used her power to save hundreds of people from certain death, who helped save her city, but won’t even let herself gather a following on Instagram.”

Catalina stares into his handsome, earnest face, and she can’t even speak. 

“Trust me,” Alessandro says. “You have no idea what a relief it was to find you.”

Catalina looks at him, her heart pounding as she wavers--and then she breathes out, and admits, “Actually...I kind of do.”


End file.
